Posted: 07 April 2008
The transformation of women’s access to higher education in Ireland
‘The opening of university education to women was one of the most significant developments of the twentieth century. It carried with it the potential to radically alter the role and status of women in society,’ says Dr Judith Harford, the author of a new book - The Opening of University Education to Women in Ireland, which was officially launched by the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin TD at Newman House, Dublin on 03 April 2008.
“Ensuring that women have the opportunities to participate in higher education is a key goal of Government,” says Minister Hanafin. “Dr Harford’s fascinating book brings to life the issues faced by women in our recent history as they accessed university education.”
Far right: The Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin TD pictured with Dr Judith Harford, UCD School of Education & Lifelong Learning and Prof Brigid Laffin, Principal, UCD College of Human Sciences, at the official book launch at Newman House, Dublin.
“It captures the voices of women whom the system at the time had tried to silence. The women portrayed in this book were exceptional, courageous and visionary women, determined to secure what they viewed as their right to higher education. I know that it will make a very significant contribution to our understanding of the importance of women’s admission to university in Ireland,” says the Minister.
“Although only a minority of middle-class women were in the social, cultural and economic position to benefit from early higher educational reform, their participation in higher education had far wider social implications,” says Dr Harford, a lecturer at the UCD School of Education and Lifelong Learning. “It helped to move women’s role beyond the private sphere of the home and into the professions and public life.”
In her book, Dr Harford outlines how the Catholic Church was one of the most powerful and strident opponents of access to higher education for women in Ireland. “It resisted the possibility of reform at every turn. However, once it emerged that Catholic women were prepared to engage in higher education in non-Catholic establishments, the hierarchy was left with no alternative but to revisit its policy and cater for the needs of women in the higher education arena.”
Central to the success of the higher education campaign, and to the emergence of a cohort of highly educated, successful and competent women graduates, was the establishment of a network of women’s colleges from the 1850s. In her book, Dr Harford shows how these single-sex colleges provided teaching in the liberal arts, exposing women for the first time to a rigorous academic curriculum and to participation in the public examination arena. “These colleges were precursors to a number of secondary schools which operate today, including Alexandra College Dublin, Loreto College, St Stephen’s Green and Muckross Park, Donnybrook,” she says.
By 1908, the higher educational landscape had been completely transformed and few saw the continued relevance of the women’s colleges. Nonetheless, the advent of co-education, the ultimate goal of the women’s lobby, brought with it a different set of problems. While women were now entitled to enter the university domain, efforts intensified to limit and restrict their access and integration into significant areas of university activity.
“The opportunities for leadership and advancement enjoyed by women in the single-sex women’s colleges were not forthcoming under the new regime, and women students and academics had to fight for meaningful inclusion under the co-educational model,” explains Dr Harford.
The Opening of University Education to Women in Ireland by Dr Judith Harford is published by Irish Academic Press.
